May You Give Some Tips On How To Write About The Whole Castles, Royalty, Peasants, Knights Type Of Story?

May you give some tips on how to write about the whole castles, royalty, peasants, knights type of story? Hehe thankies!

How to Write About Medieval Europe

The Medieval times play a huge role in many forms of media today, from TV shows to books to movies. It’s often romanticized and glamorized to make for a good plot, and sifting through what’s real and what’s fake can be a daunting task. 

Not to mention that the way of life in the Medieval times is vastly different from our lifestyles now! There was a lot more rules, a lot more pomp and circumstance, and a lot more death!

In this post, I’ll mostly be covering a time period around the 1400s to 1600s, with all of the classic knights, nobles, and kings and queens that everyone has come to know and love!

So how exactly do you write about medieval times?

1.Know the People

The Medieval times attached a lot more importance to titles and wealth than we do today. The number of names and titles can get a bit confusing at times, so please try to bear with me.

All of these are ordered from lowest rank to highest rank. 

Category One- Lower/Middle Classes (Could be collectively called Peasants)

1. Slave

Slaves are bought and sold, usually owned by nobles but sometimes purchased by some of the wealthier peasants to help out with farm work. 

They are seen as property and nothing more, and their masters can do with them as they please. 

There is rarely a penalty for killing or harming one’s own slave, but one may be punished for destruction of property if they killed or harmed a slave that wasn’t theirs.

2. Serf

Not a slave, but not free, either. 

They live on the property of a noble’s manor and are bound by the feudal system to pay rent in shares of their crops. 

They must ask the nobles permission to marry and to leave, but are overall left to their own devices. 

Their lives were still hard, however, and often they starved or fell to sickness. 

They remained serfs, however, mostly because they needed the protection of the nobles’ knights from barbarian invaders.

 If the manor of the noble was sold, the serfs came along with it.

3. Peasant

Peasants may be poor, but they are completely free. 

They often live in villages together and made their livings as masons, blacksmiths, tailors, shoemakers, farriers, carpenters, and much more. 

If they were particularly good at their craft, they may just earn enough money to be considered a noble; social mobility is not as rigid for peasants as it is for serfs and slaves.

Category 2- Knights

Knights are  in an entirely different category from the peasants and the nobility, though they are more closely associated with the nobles and garner just as much/if not more respect as them.

1. Squire

Essentially a knight in training. 

They accompany a knight on their travels and serve as their attendant, learning from the knight’s ways while polishing their armor and being their cupbearer.

2. Knight

Addressed as “Sir (Firstname)” for a man or “Dame(Firstame)” for a woman. 

Knights were hired to protect and are sworn to the code of chivalry, which is a set of rules that dictates behavior on and off the battlefield. 

For instance, knights weren’t permitted to fight an unarmed man or to kill someone whose back was turned. If an enemy was disarmed during a fight, the knight is supposed to wait for them to retrieve their weapon before resuming.

 Knights were required to be expert swordsman and bowman, as well as good riders. They also needed to be good at supporting their super-heavy armor

Category 3- Nobility

All of the nobility classes can have overlapping jobs; their titles vary on account of how much land they own. 

These nobles are given a fief, or a plot of land, by the King/Queen. They are then expected to pay taxes to the ruler and provide soldiers when needed.

1. Lord/Lady

Addressed as “My Lord/My Lady.”

2. Baron/Baroness

Addressed as “My Lord/My Lady.” 

Usually the spouse of a baron/baroness does not share the title and is simply referred to “My Lord/My Lady” unless they’re a baron/baroness in their own right.

3. Viscount/Viscountess

Addressed as “My Lord/My Lady”

4. Earl(Also known as Count)/Countess

Addressed as “Earl of (Place name)/Countess of (Place name)”

5. Marquis/Marquise

Addressed as “Marquis/Marquise of (Place name).

6. Duke/Duchess

Addressed as “Your Grace.”

Owns the most land out of any of the other nobles

Princes and Princesses can be granted titles of Duke and Duchess.

Category 4- Royalty

1. Princes/Princesses

Addressed as “Your Highness.” 

In traditional medieval Europe, the heir to the crown was usually the firstborn son. In the absence of a son, the crown will be given to the firstborn daughter.

They can also be granted other titles such as Duke and Duchess if their parents/siblings who come into power offer them land

A lot of squabbles/dramas caused by heirs; some killed by siblings in order to assume the throne

2. King/Queen

Addressed as “Your Majesty” or “Your Grace.” 

These rulers own all of the land in the kingdom and simply “rent out” property to the nobles, which can be revoked at any time. 

They levy taxes and have their own personal army to protect and wage war against other kingdoms. 

The nomenclature of Kings and Queens can be quite difficult, especially when marriage becomes involved, so I’m going to try my best to help:

When a King inherits the throne: If he marries a woman, she becomes Queen. If he marries a man, that man becomes a Prince.

When a Queen inherits the throne: If she marries a man, he becomes Prince. If she marries a woman, that woman becomes Princess.

2. Do Some Research If You’re Unsure

If you need help figuring out all of the dynamics and certain duties of all of these people, it can help to surf the web! Researching kingdoms such as England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire might help, though be careful; France had emperors and empresses at one point! 

There are very specific differences between different kingdoms, and you have to make sure you take those into account, especially if you’re writing historical fiction!

 3. Some Recommendations that May Be Helpful

Lucky for you, there are a TON of other books, movies, and TV shows that you’ll be able to draw inspiration from! Here are some things that I recommend!

Just a note, many of these aren’t necessarily medieval or focus a lot on fantasy, too, so I’m sorry if some of them aren’t exactly what you’re looking for!

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Game of Thrones on HBO

The Crown on Netflix

The Witcher on Netflix

Reign on Netflix

Victoria on Amazon Prime

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

Mary Queen of Scots (2018)

Hope this helped, and happy writing!

*Chanting* ESKEL! ESKEL! ESKEL! ESKEL! ESKEL!

someone get him out of there

Apparently there's a bunch of Geralt hate going around in the fandom again 🙄 and I WILL NOT STAND FOR THAT so:

REBLOG IF YOU LOVE AND APPRECIATE GERALT AND ARE FULLY AWARE THAT GOOD AND WONDERFUL PEOPLE SOMETIMES DO DUMB SHIT AND THAT DOESNT MAKE THEM LESS GOOD AND WONDERFUL!

Geralt knows nothing about parenting, but he does have years of heckling Lambert when he was an apprentice under his belt

the animal inside

When the sorcerer throws the spell at Jaskier, Geralt expects many things but not what he actually sees.

The spell is meant to unravel the animal inside one’s soul and turn the person into it. It’s a cynic irony and it’s nor deadly, so Geralt can’t exactly kill the sorcerer. It’s just annoying, especially as Jaskier gets hit. Geralt is sure he’ll have some kind of songbird, or a lark or another annoying singing bird stuck by his side for the next 2 weeks.

What he isn’t expecting is for a big shape to jump on the sorcerer and close its jaws on the man’s neck with a crunch.

“Jaskier!” he yells, sword in his hand. Did something go wrong?

Then, Geralt gets a good look at the animal and all words die. Jaskier, for it must be Jaskier, is some kind of big cat. Sleek and tawny brown, with moving ears and a long tail. He’s big, not quite as large as some tigers Geralt saw, but big enough. Big paws and strong jaws, shockingly blue eyes.

“Jaskier,” Geralt mutters.

Jaskier huffs at him and then goes still. Geralt sees him look at his paws and then turn in a circle, chasing his tail. Then, Jaskier plops down on his hear and makes a small chirp, years standing tall.

The Witcher comes closer hesitantly and the cat pushes his head into his hand. Geralt starts to pet him while looking. There’s solid muscle in the animal’s chest, sleek but powerful and his legs are strong, capable. He looks like a killing machine with a feral glint in his eyes and for a second, Geralt wonders why he was expecting a bird.

It’s not some cliche, it’s what’s inside. And inside, Jaskier is definitely not sweet and gentle and cowardly, so he’s not that surprised to see a feral big cat with stunning blue eyes.

“Only you, Jaskier,” Geralt says dryly and gets headbutted in the side. “Now you have to help with hunting.”

Jaskier just huffs again and yawns, uncomfortably large teeth on display, as well as the strong jaw. Geralt’s aware that he’s probably strong enough to chop a human arm off with those jaws.

They set off again because they’re used to weird things and Jaskier takes to his new form with delight, chasing animals and jumping around, testing his new legs. Geralt just admires from the distance and that night, he has a solid weight of pure muscle and fur settling on his chest, familiar eyes blinking at him. He just chuckles and kisses Jaskier’s forehead.

In all forms, he’s still Jaskier.

100% has happened

Jaskier and Geralt: *minding their business* (⌒‿⌒✿)(ー_ー)

Some dickhead: Witchers are freaks and emotionless monsters

Jaskier: (ʘ‿ʘ✿) What did you say about my man?

Jaskier: (ʘ‿ʘ)╯✿ Hold my flower

Geralt: ✿ヽ(ー_ー ) Kick his ass baby I got your flower